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Loading... Libraries in the ancient worlddoor Lionel Casson
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zeker iets voor jou Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek mooi zult vinden.  xenchu | Feb 21, 2010 |  Excellet little book. Read it overnight. Very enjoyable and informative. jaygheiser | Jul 23, 2008 | Libraries > History > To 400  Budz888 | May 31, 2008 | How much has changed and how little. muir | Dec 7, 2007 | Me, resist a book with a title like this? Especially when it's on sale? Ha. Casson's account of where, when, how and why libraries began is eminently readable, as well as informative. It's amazing how much we can determine from sparse literary references coupled with the archaeological record. We know that cuneiform tablets had colophons and how those tablets were stored. We learn that some form of cataloguing was used as early as 2000 B.C.E. And you're not the only one who reads in the bath: the public baths of Rome were also public libraries. Illustrated with photographs and diagrams. lilithcat | Nov 9, 2005 |  geen besprekingen | voeg een recensie toe
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0300097212, Paperback)The Dewey decimal system of cataloguing and its modern successors are relatively new, and they sometimes seem inadequate as ways of organizing knowledge in ever-changing fields of study. But the idea of bringing order to collections of written material is an ancient one, as Lionel Casson writes in this lucid survey of bibliophilia in the ancient Mediterranean. Among the earliest examples of written material that we have are lists of library holdings, clay tablets from Mesopotamia that archive commercial inventories, scholarly texts, and a surprising number of works on witchcraft and remedies against it.Ancient libraries grew, Casson writes, by many means: by peaceful trade, as when book-hungry Romans spent extravagant sums on Greek texts made in southern Italy; by conquest, as when the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal looted the libraries of his ancient rival Babylon, carting the contents to his capital of Nineveh; and by fiat, as when the Egyptian pharaohs appropriated private collections to round out their own. Those libraries nourished the great philosophers and writers of old, shaping world culture into our own time. But, as Casson ably shows, the enemies of books are many, among them floods, fires, insects, and intolerance. As it is today, so it was in the past, and contending empires and ideologies too often expressed themselves by sacking and burning the collections of their enemies--by reason of which we have only a few of the works that engaged readers in the distant past. Casson's slender book enhances our understanding of the role of books and their collectors in the ancient world, and bibliophiles and historians alike will find much of value in its pages. --Gregory McNamee (opgehaald bij Amazon Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:52:24 -0500) De eerste testronde is afgelopen. Bezoek de Open Shelves Classification groep voor verdere informatie. |
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A good many interesting facts are brought out. For instance, libraries in Rome were stocked with books in two languages. Except perhaps for the libraries in the public baths (I wonder if people with wet hands were allowed in the library?) The first libraries were deposits of accounting information for the most part.
The book has a number of pictures and diagrams. I thought the diagrams could have used a key to the various features shown but i suppose this is a minor quibble. The diagrams are fairly self-explanatory. There is a scholarly index of notes at the end of the book. This may, I think, be skipped by most readers unless you are writing a thesis.
As I stated first, this is a small book and easily read. I think it is worth the short time expended. If you have an interest in the history of books and libraries then this is one to read.